HDTV Video switching without a Matrix
So the problem, I have little money that i want to spend on HDTV distributionin my house and three places to distribute the signal.
1) Master Bed
2) Living Room
3) Theater
I have TVs with inputs on the back of every location except the projector and for the most part could use this concept to switch the video as needed. My logic is I know the market will produce a less expensive way to distribute audio and video over cat5 and I really dont think that I will have this house by the time that happens. (Nor could I justify retro-fitting a 2 story finished home)
I ended up purchasing a Harmon Kardon Digital Path receiver to do the switching of audio and video in the theater and would run coax to the living room and convert a run to cat5 for the bedroom (currently no cat5 runs live on the second floor of my house so that will be a project later).
I purchased a product from Audio Authority(985U) and wired it per the directions http://www.audioauthority.com/techdocs/985u752349.pdf
The runs went well and ended up with 4 runs coax (8 total = 2 digital audio and 6 video) and 4 speaker wires along with 2 cat 5 to the living room from the rack. Bedroom I am planning on sending up with 2 cat5 / RGB senders and the theater was switched via the receiver.
I understand this is the poor-mans way around source switching, but realistically I am dealing with technology that you would have found in homes about 3 years ago in a higher end install. (Technology is moving so fast in this market)
When this is all said and done and I get sick of the switching on the TV (really a more graceful way then AV switching with a universal remote or pronto) I will simply replace my 985U’s in my rack and I will have a few extra cables in the walls when I move to a video Matrtix.
The rest of the house has access to the same video signals via a Channel Plus 4 channel RF modulator.